Cornbread and Recollection

   I have decided on this day in May, to write down some of my notes from the college courses I have been a part of.
    Such as the title of this blog, southern people, we are born storytellers. We fled the nets of family, religion and politics, and then tell all about it.
    We have a braided history of the south, race, class and gender.
    An oral tradition of sermons, camp meetings, auctioneers, grandparents, teachers, neighbors, blues singers, sharing the words of their lives.
    Living libraries, every moment we are awake, we are talking about something.
    Faulkner said, " In the South the past is never dead. It's not even Past!"
   The south lingers in your ear, even when you wish it would go away.
The sentences that you just read, are all from my notes.
     The course I just finished, Plagues, Witches and War, The World of Historical Fiction, is what you will read next. I adore Historical fiction, and this course was great. ( few audio problems, but I have the text on also)
      Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, The President's Daughter, Coopers Leatherstocking, House of Velvet and Glass, Caleb's Crossing, Years of Wonder, Fever, The Ghost Bride, so many more.
    Some describe it like furniture in your brain, that you rearrange. Fiction, History, research and imagination. Historical Fiction writers are always looking over their shoulder, which they should. The writers have to also have much empathy and knowledge for the time period, Medical journals, maps, many letters and diaries, newspapers, personal stories, researched base stories. AND if they happen to be written about the south, a little freedom to embellish!! We ( southerns writers) can only describe moss and humidity like none other. The search for people's voices, what a divine journey that is, and can be. Hemingway said historical fiction writers, often write about something they over hear, or pieces of the wreck of their entire life, creep in. Along with a lifetime, of research.
    There was one author talking about the Bubonic Plague , they had many facts to help them tell the story, but how do you describe the sound of someone keening for a dead child. That takes a writer to reach far and deep, and how? How do you write about emotion, put yourself in someones shoes, without having to walk in them. Fascinating genre, at least to me.
    So much to learn .
  I have signed up for two more courses, Dr. Baron is taking a break, he is teaching summer classes.
  1. Introduction to Who Wrote Shakespeare, University of London.
  2. Aboriginal Worldviews and Education, University of Toronto
    I think both of these are Coursera, hope you join me.Give it a whirl, get those brain cells clicking.
      Now, I need to go do some yard work, pick up some photos, that I had printed, enlarge them, so I can paint from them,. ( I need them large to see everything!!) I should think about, what we are eating for supper, but I am not. Need to call mom, text Emma, and enjoy this weather. Honestly, sunshine is the cure to all, soak it up. Take notes, you are a born storyteller, I promise.